THE

MASSACHUSETTS TEACHER.

Vol. V. No. 10.] CHARLES NORTHEND, EDITOR OF THIS NUMBER.

[October, 1852.

SCHOOL SUPERVISION.

ABOUT a year ago the Essex County Teachers' Association appointed a Committee to report on School Supervision. The following report was subsequently submitted, and will be further considered and discussed at the next meeting of the Association, which will be held at Lynn in October.

The undersigned, to whom was referred the subject of "School Supervision," would most respectfully offer the following report:

Your Committee are well aware that the subject which you submitted to them is one of much interest and importance, one which demands serious thought and careful consideration. The supervision of schools is so intimately connected with their very existence and usefulness, that it is of the utmost importance that a wise, judicious, and efficient mode be adopted. While a well devised and properly executed plan will tend greatly to elevate and advance the schools, a poor and inefficient one will retard their progress, and impair their usefulness.

If it is important that any supervision be exercised over our schools, it is certainly the part of true wisdom to provide for the very best that can be devised.

In submitting to us the question under consideration, you have, certainly, implied your want of entire confidence in the mode now in operation. But it is often easier to see defects than it is to remove them. To effect any change in a long established institution, or course of management, is no trifling task, and it is not the part of true wisdom to abandon old ways, though not in

all respects satisfactory, unless new and better ones are clearly open before us. The present method of School Supervision has

been long in vogue.

It was devised by good and true men, and has been sustained by many of the wisest and best of men, and for the times and circumstances, it has accomplished a vast amount of good. But times and circumstances have materially changed. The number of schools has greatly increased, their continuation has been lengthened, the branches taught in them multiplied, and the duties required of School Committees greatly augmented. On the other hand, the appropriate duties and cares of clergymen and other professional men, from whom the schools have been wont to receive supervisory support and influence, have become more numerous and pressing, so that while the schools actually demand much more at their hands, they are really unable to do so much for them as formerly.

It is now extremely difficult, in many places, to find men who at once possess the requisite qualifications and the needed leisure.

In order that a man may be an efficient and useful school supervisor, he should not only be a man of varied knowledge, sound judgment, good common sense and a candid mind, but he should also have a degree of familiarity with the several branches taught in the schools, and above all, he should feel a deep, lively, and abiding interest in the cause of popular Education, and possess a heart of sympathy for both teacher and taught. He should also be a man who will merit and command true respect, and one whose daily walk and conversation are of a truly exemplary nature.

He should also have much leisure time which he may devote to the uninterrupted examination of the schools under his charge. Are we not right in these views? If so, let us for a moment look at the existing state of affairs. Is the Committee-man a clergyman? He is, undoubtedly, a most worthy man, but his school visitations are liable to constant interruption by calls from the sick or the dying, the afflicted or the marrying ones of his pastoral charge; or if he remains bodily in the school-room, his mind may be upon some half-constructed sermon, or upon some

parochial duty.

Is the Committee-man a physician? Who can tell when or where to find him? On the very day that his attention may be most wanted in the school-room, the more imperative calls for emetics and cathartics, bleeding and blistering, or for relief to some mortal ache or ailment, may have possession of the whole man, both doctor and committee. Is the Committee-man a lawyer? He will be very likely to attend to school duties if no "retaining fee" calls his mind in another direction, but, as

a matter of course, he will strive more to gain a suit at law than he will to suit the demands or meet the wants of the public schools, and if he spends an hour in visiting schools, it will be with the constant fear that it may be at the loss of a client. Is the Committee-man a farmer? His thoughts will be more intent upon the training of horses and cattle, or the shootings of trees, vegetables, and grains, than upon the training of boys, or the shooting of the young ideas in our schools.

Is the Committee-man a mechanic? He will think much more of the easiest and cheapest method of driving nails into boards, pegs into sole leather, or money into pocket, than he will of driving ideas into or out of boys' heads. Is he a merchant? The rise and fall off in the prices of goods will be far more prominent in his mind than the rise and fall of the voices of the young whom he may nominally superintend, and a good bargain in prospect may blind his eye to a good recitation. Above all and beyond all, is the Committee-man one of those creatures who have just "nothing at all" to do? Then he will prove the most complete "do-nothing" that can be found. He may talk, and bluster and fret, - but his very do-nothing habits will unfit him for a do-something man. If seemingly he labors like the mountain, he will bring forth nothing but a mouse.

He may feel that the weight of the nation is upon him, but the schools will feel his weight, and all he bears, really or imaginarily.

Is it not, in the very nature of things, must it not be so? In our allusions to different classes of men we have not intended the slightest disrespect. All will admit that he who would be truly successful in any vocation or pursuit, must enter upon it with a devotion of heart and energy of purpose. Hence the good minister, the skilful doctor, the efficient lawyer, the successful merchant and mechanic, the prosperous farmer, are so because they give their attention to their respective callings, while the do-nothing man has no calling, and is generally unfit for any.

But in addition to what we have said, the present mode is objectionable in that the responsibility of inspecting the schools is divided among several, and consequently there is not that strong, individual responsibility which is essential to give energy, fidelity, and success. To leave the care and oversight of our schools to a Board of ten or twelve men, is much like entrusting the care of a railroad to a Board of Directors instead of to a special Superintendent.

In order that a man should feel a deep interest in any movement, and labor successfully for its advancement, it is quite important that he should realize that much of its degree of progress, or want of progress, depends upon his action and interest, or deficiency thereof.

If the care of the schools in a town devolves upon some ten or twelve men, we may see that no one will assume to himself a very large share of the responsibility, while each will almost excuse himself from acting, under the impression that the greater fidelity and fitness of his associates render his efforts unimportant.

Again the frequent change of School Committees is very unfavorable to the best good of the schools. Every one knows that familiarity with peculiar duties renders their performance comparatively easy.

Hence a man who has devoted one year in the discharge of School Committee duties, is usually much more competent to spend another year than a stranger could or would be. He has become acquainted with teachers and pupils, and knows how to say and do things in the best way and at the right time. Indeed, if he is the right kind of a man, his entire influence and efforts will be more efficient than a stranger could be.

And yet comparatively, how few good men are retained in office for consecutive years! They either find the duties too onerous, the task too thankless, or the votes at the annual election too few. But we have already sufficiently enlarged on this point, and assuming the position that the present mode does not accomplish the desired amount of good, we will proceed to designate one which we think will be more efficient and useful.

I. Each town shall annually elect a Board of School Committee, to consist of three, five, or more members, to whom shall be entrusted the moneys raised for educational purposes, and also the general interest of the schools within the town.

II. This Board shall, as soon as may be after its organization, appoint some suitable person from its own number, or otherwise, as special Superintendent of the Schools, with the following specific duties.

1st. To select and contract with all teachers, and make such examination into their qualifications as may seem necessary, or as the Board may direct.

2d. To visit the several schools within the town as often as each month.

3d. To hold meetings of the parents in the several school districts, and address them in reference to their school duties and obligations.

4th. To hold occasional meetings of the teachers within the town, for the consideration and discussion of topics pertaining to their vocation.

5th. To aid in the adjustment of any difficulties or misunderstandings that may arise between parents and teachers, and generally to promote the peace and harmony of districts.

6th. To contract for and superintend all repairs, buildings,

&c., and to provide fuel and all other necessary articles for the

schools.

7th. To meet the Board of School Committee quarterly for the purpose of making a detailed report of his doings, and conferring with them in relation to future plans and operations.

8th. To make annually a detailed report of his doings, and of the condition of the schools; first to the School Committee, and subsequently to the town.

CHARLES NORTHEND,

LUTHER EMERSON,

J. B. FAIRFIELD,

BENJ. GREENLEAF,

Com. of Essex Co. Teachers' Association.

PRACTICAL TEACHING.

BY STEPHEN J. SEDGWICK.

In which the reader listens to a recitation.

"In every scene some moral let us teach;

And, if we can, at once both please and preach."-Pope.

THE reader is supposed to be listening to the following recitation. The pupils are on the "forms." We inquire not how they came there. Like Paul Pry, (excepting his apology,) we "intrude" at the time of the recitation in Geography. This subject is so simple, so prominent, and withal so interesting, that everybody knows all about, and of course can teach it. The lesson is announced. Subject," State of New York." Teacher. "What is New York?"

Pupil A. "New York is the most flourishing, wealthy, and populous State in the Union."

Teach. "What does it exhibit?"

Pupil B. "It exhibits one of those amazing examples of growth and prosperity that are nowhere to be seen on the globe beyond our own borders."

Teach. "What is said of the northern part?

Pupil C. "The northern portion of the State is, in part, mountainous."

Teach. "What of the eastern?"

This question falls to a little boy, whose blue eyes are full of tenderness, and his well-proportioned head covered with heavy flowing ringlets. He looks up, a slight color crimsons his cheek, as he half-audibly repeats

"What of the eastern?"

Teach. "Yes, what of the eastern?"